FLY91 Flight to Pune Delayed by Nearly Four Hours Due to Technical Issues

Panaji: A FLY91 flight to Pune was delayed by nearly four hours at the Manohar International Airport, Mopa, on Sunday, leaving at least 40 passengers fuming. According to officials at the airport and with the airline, the ATR 72-600 deployed for the flight suffered a technical glitch, and a replacement aircraft was flown in. To make matters worse, after landing at Jagadguru Sant Tukaram Maharaj Pune International Airport, the passengers were forced to walk along the apron to the terminal.
The flight to Pune was scheduled to take off from Mopa at 8pm on Sunday.
“The FLY91 flight IC 1378 departing from Goa (GOX) to Pune (PNQ) was delayed by approximately three-and-a-half hours. There was a technical issue with the aircraft in Pune, due to which FLY91 deployed a spare aircraft,” FLY91 said in a statement.
The aircraft, with its sleep-deprived passengers, finally took off around midnight and landed in Pune around 1.15am on Monday. “A new aircraft was brought in, and fresh boarding passes were issued,” said an official with the Mopa airport.
One of the disgruntled passengers said the airline did not give any information about the reason for the delay, nor were refreshments provided. “The Goa Pune flight — scheduled at 8pm and delayed by four hours — took off past midnight. No advance intimation given. No apology. No food. No pickup bus at Pune airport — passengers walking till arrivals — put to risk. Manager and ground staff fighting. Poor experience,” said Amaya Kunte in an online post.
However, the airline denied this. “A notification was shared with all passengers three hours prior to the scheduled departure, which was 8.05pm, informing them of the revised time of departure. The flight took off from GOX at 11.45pm. Refreshments were served to passengers,” said the airline.
The Goa-based airline has faced operational challenges over the last few days, with the Hyderabad-Goa flight being cancelled on April 10. “The airline left multiple people stranded in Hyderabad, and ground staff provided zero approachability, zero solutions and failed to appear for 30 minutes after the flight was cancelled,” said Ravi Puskur, a passenger.